Dubai Electricity and Water Authority (Dewa) has organised 3D Printing and Additive Manufacturing Workshop, in cooperation with General Electric (GE).

This is part of a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) that was signed between Dewa and GE last March to collaborate in 3D printing, additive manufacturing, and Industrial Internet technologies. The workshop supports Dewa’s 3D Printing plan, in cooperation with the GE Additive Manufacturing Unit.

The workshop was attended by, Dr Dalya Al Muthanna, president & CEO of GE Gulf, Dewa’s executive vice presidents and vice presidents, 50 Dewa staff, and officials from GE Additive Manufacturing Unit.

“Through our R&D initiatives at Dewa, we are working to optimise the potential of 3D printing, additive manufacturing, and other innovative technologies. We are currently building an R&D Centre at the Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum Solar Park, which includes a laboratory for drones and 3D printing research,” said Saeed Mohammed Al Tayer, MD & CEO of Dewa.

“The lab is the first building in UAE to be fully printed onsite and first 3D-printed laboratory building in the world. At Dewa, we adopt 3D printing technology as an in-house innovation solution to replace defective or broken non-metallic parts of electrical equipment.

“This eliminates the lead time for procurement, reduces costs, extends the lifetime of the equipment, and enhances innovation at Dewa. Dewa builds capacity for 3D printing by collaborating with leading organisations such as General Electric and developing R&D in the use of 3D printing in utilities. We currently focus on using making use of this technology for different purposes including printing spare parts for 11KV switchgear, and drones part design and printing, as well as parts for internal solar equipment,” added Al Tayer. – TradeArabia News Service